


Promethean Soul

by FlightOfInsanity



Series: Halo Shorts [7]
Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-24
Updated: 2016-03-24
Packaged: 2018-05-28 19:15:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,294
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6341761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlightOfInsanity/pseuds/FlightOfInsanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if a Knight wasn't entirely mindless? What if the compartmentalization wasn't quite complete? What happens when a Knight remembers?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Promethean Soul

The Knight was one of many summoned by Requiem to repel a human intrusion – its body assembled from the world’s material stores, its mind pulled down from the central repository and quickly updated with a list of relevant information and outstanding orders.

 **> Promethean commander: Didact (Warrior-Servant; status unknown)**  
**> Acting commander: Jul ‘Mdama (Sangheili)**  
** > Humans/Reclaimers not authorized for planetary access**  
** > Lethal force authorized**  
** > Defend Requiem**

As awareness spread to its limbs it briefly registered its own status – _Lancer; fully operational_ – and connected to the local battlenet, searching for a local commander and any specific orders. The connection solidified and it received a set of coordinates where a control console was currently being accessed by the humans. The Knight teleported to the coordinates, assessing the threat as it reappeared at the new location. Three humans were present in the control room – one weaponless, scrambling away into a corner; two armed, turning to engage the Knight.

The two armed humans were dispatched with ease. The first, the farthest from the Knight, went down in a brief hail of weapons fire and a messy cry of pain; the second was sent flying with a swipe from the Knight’s blade, striking the wall with an audible crack before slumping into a lifeless heap on the floor.

The third should have been at least as easy. It was just there, cowering in the corner, whimpering mindlessly to itself. The Knight turned toward the new target with deep rumble, causing the human’s vocalizations to increase in pitch and volume. It took aim and… hesitated.

The Knight’s head tilted slightly to one side as it listened to the human’s noise. The pattern… the cadence… it _knew_ it. But _what_ did it know? Its armor shifted in frustration as it took aim again and, again, hesitated.

The human slowly lowered its hands to stare at the Knight with wide, frightened eyes. Its brows drew together in some expression the Knight couldn’t process as its eyes flicked to the light rifle then back up to the Knight’s face.

**> Humans/Reclaimers not authorized for planetary access  
> Lethal force authorized**

The Knight chattered absently as the directives refreshed in its mind. It acknowledged and promptly ignored them, puzzled as it was. The light rifle drooped minutely. The human watched the movement in silence, staring at the weapon for a moment before looking back up with the same pinched expression. It made a string of noise similar to the sounds from before, but different. Different sounds… different meanings? But _what did they mean_?

**> Humans/Reclaimers not authorized for planetary access  
> Lethal force authorized**

The directives refreshed again, just as a status request from the local Commander came across the battlenet. The Knight pushed down the directives, snapped off a ‘primary threat eliminated’ status report, and stared down at the human with a frustrated hiss.

The human’s breath hitched and it made more noise the Knight both recognized and didn’t. The Knight stomped once, causing the human to shove itself back into the wall with a sharp cry. Frustrated and unsure what to do with the human, the Knight bristled angrily and teleported away.

Small clouds of dust puffed up from the ground as the Knight landed atop a plateau. It scuffed one foot, kicking up more dust, and rattled its armor again. Why couldn’t it kill the human? How was it any different from the others? It should have been easy! It was unarmed! Cowering! It wasn’t a warrior, it was just a… a… _scientist_.

The Knight jerked in surprise at the word. Scientist! It wasn’t sure what a scientist was, but it had found something. It had remembered something. It _knew_ something.

What else did it know?

It tore through its own mind with reckless abandon looking for something else, _anything_ else, but finding only more directives, more orders, more walls. It dug at those mental walls, frantic, causing itself to feel something that might have been pain. Just as it was about to give up it found it – a crack; the tiniest break in that impenetrable wall of data. It railed against that crack and it held, then fractured, then broke. The wall vanished in an instant and the Knight was hit with an overwhelming flood of information.

 _Warm light and joy and scenery that wasn’t here. Tall, blocky buildings and cars and the smell of dirt baking under the desert sun. A small mammal jumping into a set of arms – a dog._ Their _dog._ Their arms _. A table with a candle-laden cake and small, brightly wrapped gifts. A birthday. But not theirs. The man’s – the brother’s! A brother who teased and joked, but cared immensely; a family that laughed and fought, but loved beyond measure. A human family._ Their _human family... They were human._

**_They were human!_ **

The Knight let out a static-laden screech – the closest it could get to a choked sob. With the human memories had come human emotions and it felt a new wave of frustration and anger and fear. It didn’t know what to do. It wanted to go back to that human life, but how could–

 **> New intrusion detected**  
**> Report to attached coordinates**  
** > Humans/Reclaimers not authorized for planetary access**  
** > Lethal force authorized**

It remembered the two humans from before, remorse and guilt flooding its mind as it remembered what it did. The instructions repeated, insistent. The acting commander was ordering as many Knights as possible to one particular location to defend Covenant assets. With sudden clarity, the Knight knew what it needed to do. It couldn’t go back to its old life, but it could attempt to make up for what it had done.

It transported to the provided coordinates, materializing in the small middle ground between a group of visibly angry Sangheili warriors and a handful of humans. It looked at the humans, more heavily armored than before, who looked back, unsure if the Knight or the Sangheili were the larger threat. The Knight bristled, rumbling in a mockery of a language it once knew, and spun to attack the Covenant group. Two Elites were dispatched in the lull of confusion, but it didn’t take long for the rest of the troops to focus fire on the renegade Knight, or for the humans to rally around their unexpected ally.

The humans and the Knight worked in successful tandem for several minutes, driving the Covenant forces away from whatever assets the humans wanted. Many of the smaller enemies simply turned and fled. Their momentum slowed to a stalemate as more Prometheans were directed to the area as a new order to eliminate the rogue broadcast over the battlenet.

The targeting beam of a binary rifle lit onto one of the human warriors and the Knight moved without thinking, launching itself forward in front of the unaware warrior. It felt the first bolt hit and alarms went off in its mind as its shields immediately dropped to zero. The second bolt followed a moment later, striking the Knight’s now-exposed core and destroying the mechanisms holding it together.

It felt its body slowly dissolving and falling apart, the raw materials returning to the world’s store. It felt its data being compacted, packaged, ready to be purged and collected. Would it even be collected now? It didn’t know. It didn’t really care.

The Knight looked down at the human, the armored figure standing unerringly still, mirrored visor looking directly at the Knight’s face. Its head tilted down in a slight nod, a thank you to the dying Knight.

Engines roared overhead as the Knight felt the last of its body vanish. A chain-gun rattled away and it was happy. The humans’ companions had come with backup.

It had helped.

They had survived.

The Knight’s data purged and it was happy.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this post from jericho-the-princeofspace on tumblr:  
> "You know what could neat? A small story from the point of view of a Promethean Knight similar to that of Wallace Jenkins. Maybe there was a small error in Composition of this human? Maybe the Knight’s old consciousness is still aware and is watching, just like Jenkins was when he was infected by the Flood? It’s scared and confused. Can’t do much. Just watch horrified of what it’s doing, what’s happening, trapped in it’s new mechanical body,"


End file.
